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Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

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Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#301

Post by Aeolun »

nabnob wrote: post #36

I've been having the same existential crisis for a couple years now. I started working at a FAANG company right out of college, then after a bunch of personal health problems ended up taking a leave of absence that I didn't return from. I took a long break from software and started learning politics, philosophy, and history, and eventually came to the conclusion that most of the world's problems are social/political…

> But why is my own intellectual curiosity more important than whether someone else gets to eat?

Because I am me, and they are them? I mean, if I can get both at the same time then that’s obviously best. But I won’t compromise my own happiness for someone elses.

I don’t think that is mutually exclusive with wanting to end systemic problems with inequality though.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#302

Post by heliodor »

nabnob wrote: post #36

I've been having the same existential crisis for a couple years now. I started working at a FAANG company right out of college, then after a bunch of personal health problems ended up taking a leave of absence that I didn't return from. I took a long break from software and started learning politics, philosophy, and history, and eventually came to the conclusion that most of the world's problems are social/political…

Some of the social and political problems can be fixed by technology.

Technology offers speed, ease of use, and freedom:

It's allowing the population to educate itself. The sheer number and diversity of media allows people to find material about a topic that captivates them instead of walking away from the topic because the "classical" texts are not matching the student's needs.

It's allowing the population access to news beyond the standard topics and formats of newspaper, radio, and TV.

It's allowing a staggering amount of recording and publication that leads to increased transparency and reduced corruption.

It's allowing the population to bypass government controls. Encryption, cryptocurrency, etc.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#303

Post by Aeolun »

silveroriole wrote: post #62
nabnob wrote: post #36

I've been having the same existential crisis for a couple years now. I started working at a FAANG company right out of college, then after a bunch of personal health problems ended up taking a leave of absence that I didn't return from. I took a long break from software and started learning politics, philosophy, and history, and eventually came to the conclusion that most of the world's problems are social/political…

I agree. The interesting, high-paying jobs in tech all seem to be centred around funnelling money from one place to another for profit, or manipulating people for profit. Most of the available work just seems to do harm. Working for public/charity companies doesn’t lead to satisfaction either, since all you see is an overworked, underpaid, too-junior workforce and an inferior, outdated product which you can do little…

Listening to this it would seem there’s only horrible extortional companies to work for. If you stay away from FAANG you’re already a lot better off.

There’s a lot of traditional industries that do not exploit people or paychology any more than they’ve been doing for hundreds of years. Those companies need programmers as well.

You won’t get your FAANG salary, but that is the sacrifice you make. No need to give up on IT altogether.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#304

Post by GuB-42 »

fb03 wrote: post #4

I knew there would be some relation with drugs in the text. People who think psychedelic drugs (even Cannabis) are just about 'having fun' or 'getting high' are skipping past the biggest ability these compounds have: to make you change some already hardcoded aspects of your life. Someone who isn't me started working out and eating properly after having an epiphany on cannabis which prompted him to openly evaluate his…

Psychedelics are unpredictable. They can:

- Change your life for the better, like with your "friend".

- Fuck you up completely. It is rare and usually tied to preexisting conditions, but it happens.

- Give you a good, enjoyable, and rather inconsequential trip. I'd say it is by far the most common outcome, especially on low doses.

- Give you a horrible experience. It usually stops you from wanting to do any more psychedelics.

- Something else.

The problem, and the reason why they are not currently used in mainstream (scientific) medicine is that you don't know in advance which scenario will apply to you. Things like set and setting help but there is no sure fire technique.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#305

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

danans wrote: post #299
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No individual snowflake thinks it is responsible for the avalanche. Being aware of your own contribution to the state of the world and being willing to change that are important, even if you account for only a minuscule part of the problem.

Individual awareness is different than individual actions. Awareness can actually scale through individual change due to the non linear way that information spreads, and that can in turn influence policy, which then operates over the whole domain. That's sort of the whole political process in a nutshell. But individual acts of sacrifice for the common good are not scalable in the same way, due to our inherent aversio…

> But individual acts of sacrifice for the common good are not scalable in the same way, due to our inherent aversion to loss.

I submit that this is a convenient excuse. You have to be the change you want to see in the world. It is easy to say "yeah, I'm making things worse, but its ok because so is everyone else", and thus nothing changes.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#306

Post by shriek »

pier25 wrote: post #289
nabnob wrote: post #36

I've been having the same existential crisis for a couple years now. I started working at a FAANG company right out of college, then after a bunch of personal health problems ended up taking a leave of absence that I didn't return from. I took a long break from software and started learning politics, philosophy, and history, and eventually came to the conclusion that most of the world's problems are social/political…

> eventually came to the conclusion that most of the world's problems are social/political and won't be fixed by technology I agree. I work at an education company on a digital product. I got on board excited because I deeply believe education is the best way to change the world. After 4 years I've realized tech is just another tool. The quality of education depends entirely on the quality of the educators and the pe…

> Tools are pretty much irrelevant.

I won't go so far as to call them irrelevant cause I've personally found them very useful during my education. Whilst they're useless by themselves if the quality of the content itself is useless they can definitely help studying more easier and efficient.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#307

Post by _7fvc »

I find that in Western cultures, people suffer from over-thinking (maybe over-banging). They get out of balance at some point. I recommend checking out Yin Yang philosophy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang

It's about soft/hard, negative/positive. Reality is often grey instead of black and white. Contradictions are everywhere. Sometimes, you take things seriously. Sometimes, you let them go.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#308

Post by wolco »

cryptozeus wrote: post #273
ben7799 wrote: post #90

Maybe too many people are trying to find all their meaning in life through their work. It's not a recipe for success for most people, I think the media plays it up a bit too much. They're only covering the success stories in terms of people who are single minded and who make their work everything. The author of the article doesn't mention any relationships or other interests in life, no passion for anything but work.…

Your hobbies are not always in your control. Let's say you have a very busy month at work and at the same time a big music festival is happening which you would like to attend. Work will always mess up your personal lifestyle. All your hobbies are always secondary.

You choose to put importance where you deem best. Some will risk a job to keep up with outside hobbies. Others will drop hobbies.

If you set your priorties you will usually get your most desired outcome.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#309

Post by rexpop »

lm28469 wrote: post #58
short_sells_poo wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to prefix this as _anecdotal_ as it is only some speculation I've done on the matter, but here is my take on it: The brain is in the end a neural network, and like all such devices, can get stuck in various local minima that are difficult to get out of. An old habit that has been reinforced through many years can take a considerable "shock" to dislodge. All the little cognitive and behavioral biases that one…

The problem is that we shouldn't feel the need to use drugs to make our lives bearable. Depression, burnout and other mental issues is amplified by our lifestyles and the system that allowed them. Sure you can take psychedelics, anti depressant, alcohol, and other drugs to make it bearable, it won't fix the underlying issue(s). I agree with most of what you say on psychedelics, I don't see it as a cure to what we're…

The cure, of course, is revolutionary societal change, and a replacement of monolithic cultural institutions like the private, authoritarian firm and the similarly hierarchical church with worker-led cooperatives comprising human-in-the-loop planning. Leadership currently _ignores_ the workers' plight–burnout, depression, and other mental issues–to the degree that it can, and as a result we're all encouraged to live in the margin of fiscally tolerable depression.

You misunderstand the post to which you're replying. Psychedelics, for one thing, are in another class from alcohol (a central nervous system depressant). Their use does not make the underlying issues bearable. In fact, they're just as likely to stimulate a rejection of one's participation in stale institutions. Likely, this is a reason they're kept illegal. Philip K. Dick did a marvelous job of ironically portrayed illicit street drugs as "anti-psychotics" in his short story, "Faith of our Fathers."

We co-evolved with psychedelic plants. They're a tool our ancestors used to enable us. To say "they won't fix the underlying issue," is like saying "a hammer won't build a house."

Technically, true. Heck, you don't even need hammers to build houses, anymore.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#310

Post by chillwaves »

willmhorne wrote: post #122
short_sells_poo wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to prefix this as _anecdotal_ as it is only some speculation I've done on the matter, but here is my take on it: The brain is in the end a neural network, and like all such devices, can get stuck in various local minima that are difficult to get out of. An old habit that has been reinforced through many years can take a considerable "shock" to dislodge. All the little cognitive and behavioral biases that one…

My question is: If drugs "remove the long standing subconscious filters and biases that one has built over their life," what replaces them? Does one simply continue living into posterity without filters? I argue not, and in fact that, over time, the filters tend to come back without repeated exposure to drugs and drug-thought, and one is given a choice: return slightly-modified to regular life, or commit to taking dr…

I just want to add, these kind of knowledge comes from within. It is not sufficient to communicate the ideas with words. You likely know this, but people reading may not understand. One of the foundational concepts to me is the difference between abstractions like language, and real experience and also the inherent limitations of language and the idea of false knowledge that comes from reading instead of experiencing.
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